UE College of Arts and Sciences-Manila professor and researcher Julius Cesar R. Pascual, Ph.D. recently presented a paper at the Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) 2024.
The conference, whose theme was “Media Construct, Constructive Media,” was held from October 31 to November 2, 2024, at the University of Social Science and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Dr. Pascual presented on November 2, at the conference’s ‘Content Creation and Communication Education’ parallel session.
Dr. Pascual, a full professor at UE CAS Manila, has been the incumbent program coordinator of the College’s Communication Arts Cluster since 2017. He was the chair of the College’s Communication Arts Department from 2015 to 2017.
Dr. Pascual’s ACMC paper, which he co-authored with University of Santo Tomas (UST) Full Professor Veronico N. Tarrayo, Ph.D., is titled “Sliding into Your DMs in 1, 2, 3: Instagram Dating Practices of Filipino Professionals in a Relationship amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic.” The paper has been published in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)- and Scopus-indexed Q2 journal, International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies. Dr. Pascual and Dr. Tarrayo’s open-access article can be downloaded from this link: https://ijaps.usm.my/?page_id=6905
Dr. Pascual and Dr. Tarrayo’s joint study “examines how romantic alternatives are experienced and expressed through Instagram (IG) My Stories during the quarantine period brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.” This is specifically in the Philippine context, where no study had been published up until that point on the role that IG dating plays in the various stages of online dating practices during the recent lockdowns and quarantine periods.
Data revealed that Filipino professionals in a relationship (FPR) did not regard being in IG as an important marker of their romantic and emotional relationships as it is merely their coping and surviving mechanisms against boredom at the time of quarantining and their way of escaping and diverting their worries about the pandemic—hence, ending a relationship can take place at any stage in the form of “ghosting.” The analysis also proposed the term ‘quaranfling’ to describe the phenomenon of “no-strings-attached flirting during quarantine, which is basically a casual romantic relationship.”
In relation to communication, media studies, and linguistics, Dr. Pascual and Dr. Tarrayo recommended that the current study may be a precursor to further investigations on quaranfling and whether online platforms (e.g., social media and dating apps) can be attributed to the growing number of relationship dilemmas (e.g., cheating and breakups) among modern-day couples not only in the Philippines but also in Asia-Pacific.
Dr. Pascual, UE’s UE Model Teacher 2022 awardee, is also the research coordinator of UE CAS Manila’s Broadcasting and Journalism degree programs. He graduated from the University of the Philippines-Diliman with a Ph.D. in Communication and an Outstanding Dissertation Award.
In addition to academic teaching, Dr. Pascual has engaged in scholarly research and peer review in international and Philippine journals, such as The International Journal of Community and Social Development, International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies, Pedagogical Research, Plaridel Journal, Philippines Communication Society (PCS) Journal, and the University of the East Research Journal (UERJ). Among the research interests of this 2018 Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Dissertation Grantee are communication and social development, social media and relationships, media and artificial intelligence (AI), popular culture, and gender and media.
Building on his previous research with Dr. Tarrayo, Dr. Pascual has completed a UE-funded related study exploring contemporary themes around relationships and IG-AI titled “A Portrait of Lovers for Filipinos: Aesthetic Normalization of #RelationshipGoals on Instagram (IG) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).”
Kudos, Warrior Professor-Researcher!